Marketing warfare strategies
Encyclopedia
Marketing warfare strategies are a type of strategies
, used in business
and marketing
, that try to draw parallels between business and warfare, and then apply the principles of military strategy to business situations, with competing firms considered as analogous to sides in a military conflict, and market share considered as analogous to the territory which is being fought over . It is argued that, in mature, low-growth markets, and when real GDP
growth is negative or low, business operates as a zero-sum
game. One person’s gain is possible only at another person’s expense. Success depends on battling competitors for market share.
books like The Art of War
by Sun Tzu
, On War
by von Clausewitz
, and The Little Red Book
by Mao Zedong
became business classics.
From Sun Tzu they learned the tactical side of military strategy and specific tactical proscriptions. In regard to what business strategists call "first-mover advantage
", Sun Tzu said: "Generally, he who occupies the field of battle first and awaits an enemy is at ease, he who comes later to the scene and rushes into the fight is weary." From Von Clausewitz they learned the dynamic and unpredictable nature of military strategy. Clausewitz felt that in a situation of chaos and confusion
, strategy should be based on flexible principles. Strategy comes not from formula or rules of engagement, but from adapting to what he called "friction
" (minute by minute events). From Mao Zedong they learned the principles of guerrilla warfare.
The first major proponents of marketing
warfare theories was Philip Kotler
and J. B. Quinn. In an early description of business military strategy, Quinn claims that an effective strategy: "first probes and withdraws to determine opponents' strengths, forces opponents to stretch their commitments, then concentrates resources, attacks a clear exposure, overwhelms a selected market segment, builds a bridgehead in that market, and then regroups and expands from that base to dominate a wider field."
The main marketing warfare books were:
By the turn of the century marketing warfare strategies had gone out of favour. It was felt that they were limiting. There were many situations in which non-confrontational approaches were more appropriate. The Strategy of the Dolphin was developed in the mid 1990s to give guidance as to when to use aggressive strategies and when to use passive strategies. Today most business strategists stress that considerable synergies and competitive advantage can be gained from collaboration, partnering, and co-operation. They stress not how to divide up the market, but how to grow the market. Such are the vicissitudes of business theories. At last, a recent contribution for understanding and using marketing warfare strategies is the visual business war game
proposed by S. Goria.
Companies typically use many strategies concurrently, some defensive, some offensive, and always some deterrents. According to the business literature of the period, offensive strategies were more important that defensive one. Defensive strategies were used when needed, but an offensive strategy was requisite. Only by offensive strategies, were market gains made. Defensive strategies could at best keep you from falling too far behind.
The marketing warfare literature also examined leadership and motivation, intelligence gathering, types of marketing weapons, logistics, and communications.
1) By increasing the speed that the army marched and fought, they created a military advantage. They could implement their tactics faster than the enemy. Hitler used the same strategy with his Blitzkrieg
. The enemy was overrun before they were able to organize a viable resistance. But once these innovations were used, other armies made adjustments and the nature of warfare changed. All armies had to increase their pace of operations to be effective. Businesses, like armies must operate at a faster pace than their competitors in order to have a competitive advantage
. They must develop and introduce products faster, implement strategies faster, and respond to environmental factors
faster. They must be proactive.
2) Napoleon returned to the cohort organization of the Greek phalanx
. These were self contained fighting units of citizens that knew each other in daily life, and had a wide variety of skills and various skill levels. Under the Roman Empire
the phalanx was replaced by specialized legions
containing 100 fighters (centurion). Each legion had a specialized skill (such as the archer legions from Thrace). For more than 100 years, businesses have taken Adam Smith
’s advice and organized by functional specialization, just like the Roman legions did. Accountants populated the finance department and technicians populated the operations department. According to Adam Smith this is the most efficient way of organizing. But as the speed of business increases we need a more flexible system. We use cross functional teams (like the Greek phalanx) that have enough breadth of knowledge to see the big picture, are objective enough to get accurate and unbiased perceptions of environmental factors, and are flexible enough to act quickly.
3) Napoleon’s armies lived off the country instead of bringing supplies with them. This allowed them to march faster. The disadvantage is that stealing from the local population created resentment. But this was a longer term problem. It could be dealt with when the time came. The short term advantage outweighed the long term disadvantage. In business we no longer stock inventory based on an EOQ model. We use a Just In Time model and this reduces costs considerably. However it makes us vulnerable to our supply channel partners. Just as Napoleon had to manage the local people that supplied him his provisions, businesses today have found supply chain management
to be a critically important part of doing business.
4) Striking at the opponents lines of supply is known as a flanking strategy. It is effective because it eliminates the need to fight the enemy head-on. An attack on a poorly defended supply line can render the whole enemy army unable to fight. In business today we attempt to do this with exclusivity agreements with suppliers (if you sell Pepsi, you can’t sell Coke). If Pepsi has an exclusivity agreement with Pizza Hut, Coke will effectively be eliminated from that part of the market.
Strategic planning
Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues...
, used in business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
and marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
, that try to draw parallels between business and warfare, and then apply the principles of military strategy to business situations, with competing firms considered as analogous to sides in a military conflict, and market share considered as analogous to the territory which is being fought over . It is argued that, in mature, low-growth markets, and when real GDP
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
growth is negative or low, business operates as a zero-sum
Zero-sum
In game theory and economic theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which a participant's gain of utility is exactly balanced by the losses of the utility of other participant. If the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are...
game. One person’s gain is possible only at another person’s expense. Success depends on battling competitors for market share.
The use of marketing warfare strategies
Strategy is the organized deployment of resources to achieve specific objectives, something that business and warfare have in common. In the 1980s business strategists realized that there was a vast knowledge base stretching back thousands of years that they had barely examined. They turned to military strategy for guidance. Military strategyMilitary strategy
Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops...
books like The Art of War
The Art of War
The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu , a high ranking military general and strategist during the late Spring and Autumn period...
by Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu
Sun Wu , style name Changqing , better known as Sun Tzu or Sunzi , was an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher who is traditionally believed, and who is most likely, to have authored The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy...
, On War
On War
Vom Kriege is a book on war and military strategy by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz , written mostly after the Napoleonic wars, between 1816 and 1830, and published posthumously by his wife in 1832. It has been translated into English several times as On War...
by von Clausewitz
Carl von Clausewitz
Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz was a Prussian soldier and German military theorist who stressed the moral and political aspects of war...
, and The Little Red Book
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung , is a book of selected statements from speeches and writings by Mao Zedong, the former leader of Chinese Communist Party, published from 1964 to about 1976 and widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution...
by Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
became business classics.
From Sun Tzu they learned the tactical side of military strategy and specific tactical proscriptions. In regard to what business strategists call "first-mover advantage
First-mover advantage
In marketing, first-mover advantage or FMA is the advantage gained by the initial significant occupant of a market segment. It may be referred to as Technological Leadership. This advantage may stem from the fact that the first entrant can gain control of resources that followers may not be able...
", Sun Tzu said: "Generally, he who occupies the field of battle first and awaits an enemy is at ease, he who comes later to the scene and rushes into the fight is weary." From Von Clausewitz they learned the dynamic and unpredictable nature of military strategy. Clausewitz felt that in a situation of chaos and confusion
ConFusion
ConFusion is an annual science fiction convention organized by the Stilyagi Air Corps and its parent organization, the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association. Commonly, it is held the third weekend of January. It is the oldest science fiction convention in Michigan, a regional, general SF con...
, strategy should be based on flexible principles. Strategy comes not from formula or rules of engagement, but from adapting to what he called "friction
Friction
Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and/or material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction:...
" (minute by minute events). From Mao Zedong they learned the principles of guerrilla warfare.
The first major proponents of marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
warfare theories was Philip Kotler
Philip Kotler
Philip Kotler is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.-Early life:He received his master's degree at the University of Chicago...
and J. B. Quinn. In an early description of business military strategy, Quinn claims that an effective strategy: "first probes and withdraws to determine opponents' strengths, forces opponents to stretch their commitments, then concentrates resources, attacks a clear exposure, overwhelms a selected market segment, builds a bridgehead in that market, and then regroups and expands from that base to dominate a wider field."
The main marketing warfare books were:
- Business War GamesBusiness War GamesBusiness war gaming or business wargaming is an adaptation of the art of simulating moves and counter-moves in a commercial setting. Unlike military war games, or fantasy war games which go back hundreds of years to the days of Prussia and H.G...
by Barrie James, 1984 - Marketing Warfare by Al RiesAl RiesAl Ries is a marketing professional and author. He is also the co-founder and chairman of the Atlanta-based consulting firm Ries & Ries with his partner and daughter, Laura Ries...
and Jack TroutJack TroutJack Trout is among the world’s most famous marketing gurus. Over the 40 years of marketing consultancy work, Jack Trout has engaged in hundreds of assignments all over the globe...
, 1986 - Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun by Wess Roberts, 1987
By the turn of the century marketing warfare strategies had gone out of favour. It was felt that they were limiting. There were many situations in which non-confrontational approaches were more appropriate. The Strategy of the Dolphin was developed in the mid 1990s to give guidance as to when to use aggressive strategies and when to use passive strategies. Today most business strategists stress that considerable synergies and competitive advantage can be gained from collaboration, partnering, and co-operation. They stress not how to divide up the market, but how to grow the market. Such are the vicissitudes of business theories. At last, a recent contribution for understanding and using marketing warfare strategies is the visual business war game
Business War Games
Business war gaming or business wargaming is an adaptation of the art of simulating moves and counter-moves in a commercial setting. Unlike military war games, or fantasy war games which go back hundreds of years to the days of Prussia and H.G...
proposed by S. Goria.
Marketing Warfare Strategies
- Offensive marketing warfare strategiesOffensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview. Offensive marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing warfare...
- are used to secure competitive advantages; market leaders, runner-ups or struggling competitors are usually attacked - Defensive marketing warfare strategiesDefensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
- are used to defend competitive advantages; lessen risk of being attacked, decrease effects of attacks, strengthen position - Flanking marketing warfare strategiesFlanking marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
- Operate in areas of little importance to the competitor. - Guerrilla marketing warfare strategiesGuerrilla marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military strategy to form a marketing and advertising campaign...
- Attack, retreat, hide, then do it again, and again, until the competitor moves on to other markets. - Deterrence Strategies - Deterrence is a battle won in the minds of the enemy. You convince the competitor that it would be prudent to keep out of your markets.
- Pre-emptive strike - Attack before you are attacked. (see Defensive marketing warfare strategiesDefensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
for a description) - Frontal Attack - A direct head-on confrontation. (see Offensive marketing warfare strategiesOffensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview. Offensive marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing warfare...
for a description) - Flanking Attack - Attack the competitor’s flank. (see Flanking marketing warfare strategiesFlanking marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
for a description) - Sequential Strategies - A strategy that consists of a series of sub-strategies that must all be successfully carried out in the right order.
- Alliance Strategies - The use of alliances and partnerships to build strength and stabilize situations.
- Position Defense - The erection of fortifications. (see Defensive marketing warfare strategiesDefensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
for a description) - Mobile defense - Constantly changing positions. (see Defensive marketing warfare strategiesDefensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
for a description) - Encirclement strategy - Envelop the opponents position. (see Offensive marketing warfare strategiesOffensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview. Offensive marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing warfare...
for a description) - Cumulative strategies - A collection of seemingly random operations that, when complete, obtain your objective.
- Counter-offensive - When you are under attack, launch a counter-offensive at the attacker’s weak point. (see Defensive marketing warfare strategiesDefensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
for a description) - Strategic withdrawal - Retreat and regroup so you can live to fight another day. (see Defensive marketing warfare strategiesDefensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
for a description) - Flank positioning - Strengthen your flank. (see Defensive marketing warfare strategiesDefensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
for a description) - Leapfrog strategy - Avoid confrontation by bypassing enemy or competitive forces. (see Offensive marketing warfare strategiesOffensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview. Offensive marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing warfare...
for a description)
Companies typically use many strategies concurrently, some defensive, some offensive, and always some deterrents. According to the business literature of the period, offensive strategies were more important that defensive one. Defensive strategies were used when needed, but an offensive strategy was requisite. Only by offensive strategies, were market gains made. Defensive strategies could at best keep you from falling too far behind.
The marketing warfare literature also examined leadership and motivation, intelligence gathering, types of marketing weapons, logistics, and communications.
Learning from Napoleon
To understand how business strategists used military strategies, we can look at the innovations of Napoleon and apply them to business situations. Napoleon made four key innovations. They were 1) increase his army’s marching rate, 2) organize the army into self contained units, 3) live off the country, and 4) attack the opponent’s lines of supply. All four provide lessons for business strategists:1) By increasing the speed that the army marched and fought, they created a military advantage. They could implement their tactics faster than the enemy. Hitler used the same strategy with his Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
. The enemy was overrun before they were able to organize a viable resistance. But once these innovations were used, other armies made adjustments and the nature of warfare changed. All armies had to increase their pace of operations to be effective. Businesses, like armies must operate at a faster pace than their competitors in order to have a competitive advantage
Sustainable competitive advantage
Competitive advantage is defined as the strategic advantage one business entity has over its rival entities within its competitive industry. Achieving competitive advantage strengthens and positions a business better within the business environment....
. They must develop and introduce products faster, implement strategies faster, and respond to environmental factors
Environmental scanning
Environmental scanning is one component of the global environmental analysis. Environmental monitoring, environmental forecasting and environmental assessment complete the global environmental analysis. Environmental scanning refers to the macro environment.The global environment refers to the...
faster. They must be proactive.
2) Napoleon returned to the cohort organization of the Greek phalanx
Phalanx formation
The phalanx is a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar weapons...
. These were self contained fighting units of citizens that knew each other in daily life, and had a wide variety of skills and various skill levels. Under the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
the phalanx was replaced by specialized legions
Roman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
containing 100 fighters (centurion). Each legion had a specialized skill (such as the archer legions from Thrace). For more than 100 years, businesses have taken Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
’s advice and organized by functional specialization, just like the Roman legions did. Accountants populated the finance department and technicians populated the operations department. According to Adam Smith this is the most efficient way of organizing. But as the speed of business increases we need a more flexible system. We use cross functional teams (like the Greek phalanx) that have enough breadth of knowledge to see the big picture, are objective enough to get accurate and unbiased perceptions of environmental factors, and are flexible enough to act quickly.
3) Napoleon’s armies lived off the country instead of bringing supplies with them. This allowed them to march faster. The disadvantage is that stealing from the local population created resentment. But this was a longer term problem. It could be dealt with when the time came. The short term advantage outweighed the long term disadvantage. In business we no longer stock inventory based on an EOQ model. We use a Just In Time model and this reduces costs considerably. However it makes us vulnerable to our supply channel partners. Just as Napoleon had to manage the local people that supplied him his provisions, businesses today have found supply chain management
Supply chain management
Supply chain management is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers...
to be a critically important part of doing business.
4) Striking at the opponents lines of supply is known as a flanking strategy. It is effective because it eliminates the need to fight the enemy head-on. An attack on a poorly defended supply line can render the whole enemy army unable to fight. In business today we attempt to do this with exclusivity agreements with suppliers (if you sell Pepsi, you can’t sell Coke). If Pepsi has an exclusivity agreement with Pizza Hut, Coke will effectively be eliminated from that part of the market.
See also
- marketingMarketingMarketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
- strategic managementStrategic managementStrategic management is a field that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments...
- marketing strategies
- strategic planningStrategic planningStrategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues...
- defensive marketing warfare strategiesDefensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
- offensive marketing warfare strategiesOffensive marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview. Offensive marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing warfare...
- guerrilla marketing warfare strategiesGuerrilla marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military strategy to form a marketing and advertising campaign...
- flanking marketing warfare strategiesFlanking marketing warfare strategiesIn marketing and strategic management, marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing strategy that uses military metaphor to craft a businesses strategy. See marketing warfare strategies for background and an overview...
- Lanchester's laws and business
- Business war gamesBusiness War GamesBusiness war gaming or business wargaming is an adaptation of the art of simulating moves and counter-moves in a commercial setting. Unlike military war games, or fantasy war games which go back hundreds of years to the days of Prussia and H.G...
Lists of related topics
- list of marketing topics
- list of management topics
- list of finance topics
- list of accounting topics
- list of economics topics